5.18.2012

round 2

for those of you who don't know, my sister was diagnosed with hodgkins lymphoma in august 2010. her oldest was three and her youngest was just 6 months. she so bravely went through chemo and radiation and we thought we had put the whole thing behind us. unfortunately that was not the case. she began having some symptoms again and after many scans and other diagnostic procedures, the doctors revealed that they thought the cancer had come back. :(

easter weekend was rough for her. she hadn't officially been diagnosed yet, but she felt horrible. and she looked horrible. i had experienced my sister feeling bad because of chemo or because of radiation, but that was the first time i saw the cancer actually making her sick. it was scary for all of us. we soon found out she was experience b symptoms. the monday after easter my brother-in-law, her husband, took her to her oncologist and they admitted her into the hospital. they then, after more procedures, confirmed the cancer had returned and immediately started chemo. she was hospitalized for seven days and was discharged only six days prior to our disney trip. her doctors discouraged the trip and doubted she would be physically able to go. but my sister is a fighter and insisted on going. they sent her with an arsenal of drugs and my mom had to learn how to administer her shots. she handled the trip amazingly! she even got a nice set of wheels (a power scooter) to drive around disney (and we got to skip a little bit in lines because of it - hehe!).

as soon as we returned home she did another round of chemo and her hair slowly started to fall out. the first time she went through this her hair never fell out. i got the pleasure of shaving her head. finding the silver lining - she now gets to use some of her awesome wigs she bought for the last go around! her husband, being the super supportive guy he is, also shaved his head - well kind of. darren really only wanted a short buzz cut. but jeff decided to take the guard off and shave the whole thing. darren's face was priceless when he realized what jeff had done. here is a pic of the two baldies:

as for now we are waiting for her start her treatment at md anderson. she has an online journal that you can read here. lots of prayers would be greatly appreciated :)